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Report on the Investigation of the Diocese of Manchester

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Report on the Investigation of the Diocese of Manchester REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION OF THE DIOCESE OF MANCHESTER March 3, 2003 Peter W. Heed Attorney General N. William Delker Senior Assistant Attorney General James D. Rosenberg Assistant Attorney General Office of the Attorney General 33 Capitol Street Concord, N.H. 03301-6397 (603) 271-3671 OVERVIEW OF INVESTIGATION I. INTRODUCTION This report is the final product of an intense investigation conducted by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”) into the manner in which the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester (the “Diocese”) handled allegations that priests committed sexual assaults against minors – an investigation that established that the Diocese endangered the welfare of children. The State’s investigation began in February 2002, when the Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”) contacted representatives from the Diocese of Manchester to inquire about the Diocese’s policy and practice regarding allegations of sexual misconduct by clergy. That inquiry was prompted by news reports from Massachusetts regarding the Archdiocese’s practice of reassigning priests after allegations of sexual abuse became known to the Archdiocese. Following the initial inquiry to the Diocese, the investigation into the actions of the Diocese began by gathering records from the Diocese through grand jury subpoenas. The Diocese initially provided redacted records to the AGO, asserting various grounds for withholding or redacting information. The State filed a motion to compel production of complete, unredacted records. In June 2002, the Diocese complied with the grand jury subpoena, following an order by the Hillsborough County Superior Court (Barry, J.) granting the State’s motion to compel and denying the Diocese’s motion to reconsider. The AGO received the unredacted records on June 20, 2002. Following the Superior Court’s order enforcing the grand jury subpoena, the Diocese permitted prosecutors and investigators direct access to all records of the Diocese to ensure that the investigation obtained all relevant information. The records obtained from the Diocese provided a basis for the AGO to begin speaking with witnesses. The Attorney General established a Task Force, consisting of three teams of two investigators from state, county, and local law enforcement agencies, to interview witnesses beginning on July 2, 2002. The investigation confirmed initial suspicions that in multiple cases the Diocese knew that a particular priest was sexually assaulting minors, the Diocese took inadequate or no action to protect these children within the parish, and that the priest subsequently committed additional acts of sexual abuse against children that the priest had contact with through the church. Based on this evidence, the AGO was prepared to present indictments to the Hillsborough County Grand Jury on December 13, 2002, charging the Diocese of Manchester with multiple counts of endangering the welfare of a minor in violation of RSA 639:3. On December 10, 2002, the Diocese entered into an agreement with the State that ended the criminal proceedings. With an understanding of the evidence obtained by the State and the elements required to prove a criminal violation of the New Hampshire child endangerment statute, RSA 639:3, I, the Diocese acknowledged that the State had evidence likely to sustain a conviction against the Diocese for child endangerment. 1 The State decided not to present indictments to the grand jury for two reasons. First, the Diocese acknowledged that certain of its decisions concerning the assignment to ministry of priests who had abused minors in the past resulted in other minors being victimized. Second, the Diocese agreed to comply with several conditions that will safeguard children, ensure transparency of both its prior and future conduct, and create a system of accountability. The State feels that the agreement with the Diocese accomplished greater protection of children than would have resulted from a criminal trial and conviction. • Protection of Children: Under the agreement, the Diocese is required to comply with mandatory reporting requirements for sexual abuse of minors (children under the age of eighteen) that are even more stringent than under current law. All Diocesan personnel will be required to acknowledge, in writing, their knowledge and understanding of these reporting requirements. The Diocese is obligated to train its personnel on issues of child sexual abuse. The Diocese will establish a centralized office to handle allegations of sexual abuse of minors, to establish policies and protocols for handling such cases, and to maintain all records and information relating to such matters. • Accountability: The Diocese is obligated to submit to an annual audit by the AGO, focusing on the manner in which the Diocese has responded to allegations of sexual abuse of minors. It is also required to permit the AGO to review and comment on policies, protocols, and training materials relating to such matters. The agreement will be reviewed in five years upon a motion by the State. In addition, all terms of the agreement are enforceable by the Hillsborough County Superior Court. • Transparency: The agreement also provides for a complete disclosure of the facts relating to the Diocese’s past handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests. This report details the facts discovered by the State during its investigation of those cases that the Task Force investigated. In addition, the State is releasing copies of documents obtained from the Diocese, as well as investigative reports and other information gathered by the Task Force during the course of this investigation. This report begins by canvassing the relevant criminal laws that applied to the facts uncovered by the Task Force during the investigation. Following a discussion of the law, the report details the facts concerning the Diocese’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse against eight priests which the Task Force investigated between July 2, 2002 and December 10, 2002. The eight cases investigated by the Task Force represent only some of the Diocesan priests accused of sexual abuse. The Task Force has been unable to investigate the circumstances surrounding all cases for several reasons. As explained in more detail below, for some of the cases the statute of limitations expired on or about February 1, 2003, one year after the AGO first became aware of the potential criminal conduct by the Diocese. As a practical matter, the manpower resources were simply inadequate to investigate all cases in a 2 timely manner. The bulk of the investigation needed to be completed by November 1, 2002, in order to provide adequate time to formulate a decision about proceeding further in the case, and ultimately presenting the case to the grand jury before the statute of limitations expired. II. LEGAL ANALYSIS A. Potential Criminal Conduct Of The Diocese And/Or Its Agents 1. Child Endangerment – RSA 639:3 The State investigated the Diocese of Manchester, as an organization, for the crime of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. “A person1 is guilty of endangering the welfare of a child . if he knowingly endangers the welfare of a child under 18 years of age . by purposely violating a duty of care, protection or support he owes to such a child . .” RSA 639:3, I. In order to prove that the Diocese or its agents violated this statute, the State would have been required to prove the following elements: (1) the Diocese knowingly endangered the welfare of a child under 18 years of age; and (2) the Diocese purposely violated a duty of care or protection that it owed to the child. New Hampshire’s statute was adopted from the Model Penal Code § 230.4 (“MPC”). See Report of Commission to Recommend Codification of Criminal Laws at 81-82 (1969) (noting that RSA 639:3, I, was “taken from the Model Penal Code § 230.4”). The commentary to the MPC explains the purpose of this provision regarding endangering the welfare of a child: [Section 230.4] reaches one who knowingly endangers the welfare of a child by violating a duty of care, protection, or support. This prohibition, punished by misdemeanor sanctions, includes a wide range of adult behavior that may have an adverse effect on the welfare of children, but is circumscribed by the requirements that a duty of care, protection, or support must exist in law, that the actor must knowingly endanger the welfare of the child by violation of that duty, and that the actor must be a parent, guardian, or other person supervising the welfare of the child. 1 Our criminal code defines the term “person” to include corporations and unincorporated associations. See RSA 625:11, II. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester is by New Hampshire state law a “corporation sole.” N.H. Laws ch. 232 (1901). The purpose of this law appears to have been to ensure the orderly succession of property and liabilities from one Bishop to another without the need to probate church property each time a Bishop died. Id. The law subjects the Bishop and his successors to “all the liabilities and limitations imposed by the Public Statutes.” N.H. Laws 232:1. The charges the AGO intended to present would have been brought against the entity commonly known as the Diocese of Manchester. 3 The section further requires that the violation of duty actually endanger a child’s welfare. The requirement of actual endangerment eliminates from the scope of this offense de minimis failures of a parent or guardian that do not warrant legal redress. The statutory phrasing also excludes from coverage some less serious defaults for which civil sanctions should be sufficient. The objective is to confine criminal punishment for endangering the welfare of children to consequential acts violative of some settled obligation springing from the supervisory relationship of actor to child. Model Penal Code and Commentaries pt. II, § 230.4, comments 2 & 3, at 450-51 (1980). Although case law interpreting RSA 639:3 is limited in New Hampshire, cases from other states that have adopted provisions similar to RSA 639:3 provide information regarding the interpretation of New Hampshire’s statute.
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